Parents of 43 missing Mexican students stage protests

Mexico City, May 27 (IANS) Parents of 43 students who went missing in Mexico in 2014 staged protests in front of embassies in Mexico City to demand long-term follow-up on the disappearances.

Thursday marked 20 months after the disappearance of the students in Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, EFE news reported.

Parents and relatives divided into four groups and went to diplomatic offices, where they delivered a document with their demands.

The embassies of Spain, Germany, Brazil, China and Ecuador were some of the key offices outside where the protests were staged. They also travelled to the headquarters of the Delegation of the European Union.

They later gathered at the monument known as ‘the Angel of Independence’ and began a march towards the office of the Attorney General.

After the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) concluded its mandate in April, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced that a special mechanism would be implemented to follow the case.

Vidulfo Rosales, a human rights lawyer representing the families, said the government wants this mechanism to operate only for six months, which is considered insufficient since this is a “complex investigation”.

According to the official report of the PGR, 43 youths were kidnapped in Iguala on the night of September 26, 2014 by corrupt police, who handed them over to the members of Guerreros Unidos, a criminal organisation in Guerrero who killed the students and burned their remains in the neighbouring municipality of Cocula.